Honduras Preteen doing well

Had our normal day of working on the road. We are making progress and see some improvement to the road.

Kyla & Jeremiah had KP this day and were a great help in the kitchen. The team is becoming close friends with the national students and are having great fun teaching each other both English and Spanish words. The base dog, Baloo, is a favorite of all the team, he goes to the worksite with the team each day and barks and runs the cows off the road if they come near. The highlight of the evening was an organized game of capture the flag–they had too much fun. After play time we had Bible study and our daily read of different people groups followed by prayer and bed.

Saturday July 24–Shopping day in San Pedro Sula–two hours away. The team was so excited when the bus pulled in at 8:30 AM and they loaded up for a day of buying souvenirs. That we have a team of 12 boys became evident as the machetes keep showing up on the bus and the girls were coming in the door with purses and jewelry—too funny. For lunch we went to a mall and they had their pick of food or had a sandwich with Mrs. Maher. They had so much fun and talked all the way home. Upon arrival we had to have a fashion show of soccer jerseys, purses, wooden items and a show of the machetes, after which, we collected them and put them in a safe place. Sorry parents, but 12 boys and 12 or more machetes sounded like trouble to us. The boys are too funny they visit the machete stash each day and say hello to their own. The BMW students had prepared a national meal for our supper and that was a blessing after a long day. We all loved the fried plantains, rice and beans and tortillas. What a day but so fun.

Sunday July 25 We visited another church in Santa Cruz for Sunday service and Mr. Maher preached. The team sang one song that they have learned in Spanish—King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Amanda & Tyler had KP. We had a game of Bible baseball to do verse review. We selected two teams—David’s Mighty Beachwarmers against the The Philistines. A single meant you were given the reference and first word of the verse, a double was the key word, triple beginning at the back of the verse and reading backwards. A misquote or wrong reference was an out. We had fun using their competitive natures and had a great verse review. David’s mighty beachwarmers won 4-3. After this we had mandatory clean your room time. The boy’s room looked like something had exploded. They did a great job cleaning and the girls were already much neater (after all only 6 of them) but they did some good cleaning as well. In the evening we had a sword drill and found that we have kids that are fast—Caleb, Chris, Luke and Will are very quick. Prayer and bed time followed.

Monday July 26 Another work day we had a bit of a rainy day. Christopher and Natalie had KP and were very entertaining. We had our usual free time and snack shop time. The BMW students here run a little store for the kids with coke, candy, gum and gatorade. We open is a few times a week and they love it. We had a great Bible study time, storytime with Mrs. Maher were we read about a different people group and a time of singing and worship.

Tuesday July 27 We worked a bit on the road but started a few other projects today. One crew was scrubbing the green moss off of a section of sidewalk (Mr. Maher appreciates this cause he fell down on that stuff—thank goodness he wasn’t hurt). Jared & Aminda had KP and Caleb and McKenna had devotions.

We have daily bug bite checks. Where we wash them with antibacterial soap, put on cream and load them up with antibiotic lotions. The bugs are so bad here we are making some of them wear long sleeves which they hate cause its hot. It does cut down on the bites a bit. We all have bites and you never see them coming. We try to keep everyone sprayed and inside in the night. We are becoming a family and enjoy each other so much. Many of the kids are making life-long friends. We have not had any serious problem with any of them and we do laugh so much. We praise the Lord for good health. We had a few colds, a few with a bit of diarrhea but so far so good. They eat so well—In fact everyone goes for seconds and many for thirds.

15 Comments

My daughter Amanda is on the Honduras Horseback team..but I love to read these reports on the Preteen team. It helps to give me insight on the country and the environment. I am thinking that the Horseback team will be joining the preteens soon as they wind down w/ their mountain experience. What a great opportunity for both teams to reunite and share w/ the locals. Thanks for the detailed reports..praying for all those bug bites!!!

Praying for you all! What a wonderful time you seem to be having – minus the bug bites! Maybe they are trying to take the title from the boot camp bugs? 🙂 May the Lord work through all of you in wondrous ways this summer!

We can’t possibly thank you enough for this exciting news. We are so far away and missing Him so very much. It is such a wonderful glimpse into your daily life. Machete’s galore with the boys is absolutlely no surprise. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to take home 2 or 3 each! Our prayers are with you all daily. And our many many thanks for looking after our children in such a loving and Godly fashion. Give Isariah a great big hug from us!!! THANKS

Thank you so much for the report. It’s really great to hear about all you are doing. Things at home are a little too quiet and we are truely missing our Amanda. We are counting the days for her return and these reports make the waiting easier to deal with. We continue to pray for the mission and ask for God’s blessings to go before you that He may recieve all the glory, honor, and praise. Amen

We just love the updates that you send. It makes time go so much quicker to know that they are all doing well..It seems like next week will never get here. I’m a little scared to think of Tyler with a machete though….Thank you so much for all that you do, so that these kids have this amazing opportunity. See you soon!

Thank you once again for the news from Honduras. I means so much to hear the kids mentioned by name. I share the news with many people daily who ask how Natalie and the team are doing. We can’t wait to see her and give her a big hug. Thank you for the care you show the kids. It helps the worried parents a lot to know they are safe. Lots of love to Natalie (P.S. Your little sister misses you a whole lot!) .

Sounds like all of you are having fun and working hard. Meeting people that are so different from yourself must be very exciting. I Tell everyone how you are doing. God has blessed us with a boy like you. Love you bunches.

You can’t imagine how exciting it is for us to get these reports! I probably check online 20 times a day! We are truly indebted to all of you and so very very thankful for these kids to have this opportunity to grow up in the Lord in a way that we just couldn’t duplicate at home. What an amazing blessing! Praise God! and a Big Hug to Aminda!

Thank you so much for this new report! No need to apologize for the machete “safe-keeping!” Two of those twelve boys are ours 🙂 So glad to hear that the whole team is doing well. We battle the bugs here too. Christian and Caleb have two little sisters (they have 5 little sisters altogether, but only two that have bad bites) that have arms that look like they have chicken pox. We do bug bite checks here too 🙂 I am so glad for all the good care the leaders are taking of our kids. Thank you all so much. We are praying for y’all.

12 boys……….12 or more machetes…….sounds like fun 🙂 I know Jake was talking about getting one months before he even left. Daniel (The staff missionary’s son) told him all about them last year while they were in Ecuador together. Should make travel home interesting 🙂 Thank you so much for such expressive reports. And for taking such wonderful care of our treasures. See you soon Jacob! Love Mom

What a great update with so many descriptive details. Thank you, thank you. It means so much to parents (and grandparents) to get these reports, to know that the team is healthy, bonding with each other,having fun, working, and most of all growing in their faith in the Lord Jesus. And yes…thanks for keeping the machetes in a safe place! Maybe Jared can whack his grandma’s weeds when he gets home:)

Another wonderful report, so thankful for the detailed writing and vivid descriptions. Will pray for you all that none of the bug bites become infected or cause more serious problems. Thank you for the faithfulness of the leaders in making sure our children stay healthy. I know Jeremiah would rather be playing than worrying about getting creme on his bug bites. It sounds like you have a wonderful team.